Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Uke Group

For months I've been wanting to attend the Pluckin' Strummers Ukulele group at the Christ Church of Griffith Park in Atwater Village.

My friends, Natalie, Mary Jo and Brit play with the group. They meet on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month at 10 a.m. On the second Saturday of each month, I have my Stitch 'n Bitch Group at the Original Farmers Market, so the fourth Saturday is the only time I have free for this group.

I finally attended my first meeting this past Saturday. Brit was there too. Natalie was busy and Mary Jo was in Italy.

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Brit Rocks those Uke Tunes

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The Pluckin' Strummers is a casual group of friendly uke players at all different skill levels. The leader, Brett "Tooch" Santucci, is a very skilled player. The group plays songs from "The Daily Ukulele" which is a huge book with many popular songs....kind of a fake book for ukesters. Sometimes Tooch gives basic theory lessons. Last week's lesson went a bit over my head. Even though I play AT guitar and banjo, I'm not a serious musician. I'm a campfire musician.....OK on singing while I plunk out the basic chords. We played some fun songs on Saturday. I definitely need to practice my quick chord changes! Tooch passed out some other tunes, not included in the big book. There are links on the website to this sheet music.

At the beginning of the morning, we warmed up with some easy songs. There was a break after an hour. Snacks! The second hour we played some more difficult pieces and had our theory lesson. At the end of the session, there was a performance segment. About 3 people played their songs, solo. The highlight was when two members performed a lively version of the appropos for Halloween, "Monster Mash."

"Monster Mash" Performers

It seems that after you've been in the group for awhile, you must perform solo or duo at the end of the meeting. Yikes! My best number is "Jingle Bell Rock." Maybe the group can squeeze me in for the December performance! If you play the uke or want to learn, do join!